Very Unusual Holiday Gifts for Book Lovers

Booktryst's Linda Hedrick hits the stacks and discovers delightfully different Holiday gifts.

by Linda Hedrick

It’s that time of the year again, when we suffer from not knowing what to get our book-loving friends as a holiday gift.  Another gift card?  No, it should be something that expresses our dear appreciation of them, and something that will be dearly appreciated by them.

This year we’ve been fortunate and have found some truly interesting things for everyone on our list, and, we suspect, yours, too.

Smell any good books lately?

Book deodorizer – who hasn’t suffered from smelly books?  Your friends will appreciate your thoughtfulness as they open up a bag of book deodorizing granules.  Just put a layer of granules in an airtight plastic container with your book(s) and seal.  Two weeks later – voila!  Fresh-smelling books! And, even better, the granules are biodegradable so they can go straight into your compost pile once they’ve been exhausted.  All natural, non-toxic, made in the U.S.A.  Perfect for the environmental readers on your list,  you can buy them here:  1 pound for $16; 6 pounds for $75.  Such a deal!

May be used as a bib

For the children on your list, or for the inept reader that can’t seem to take proper care of their books, we have one word: Plastics.  Thanks to a collaboration between UFSCAR (Universidade Federal de São Carlos) and Vitopel Brasil, a new product is available – Vitopaper – similar to the film used for labels and snack packages.  This new plastic paper can be used for handwritten texts using a pencil or pen, or with graphic processes.  It absorbs less ink, saving up to 20% of one’s ink allotment, a savvy consideration with current economic factors.  Made from recycled plastic it is costly but lasts indefinitely, making it the perfect choice to have someone’s favorite book printed on. 

Collecting late fees may be an issue.

Do you know book lovers who are constantly loaning out their books and never get them back?  Or perhaps you have friends with secret librarian fetishes.  In either case, the DIY Library Kit is the perfect gift.  The kit includes 20 self-adhesive pockets, 20 checkout cards, date stamp, inkpad, and pencil.  You can also buy a refill kit of 15 self-adhesive pockets and 15 checkout cards.  Help them help themselves.

Light up your life with books.

One can never have too bookish an atmosphere, and lights made of books will complement any décor. The book lamps by Myungseo Kang have the right bookish vibe and create the proper ambient lighting for bibliophiles.

Perhaps not bright enough to read by but warm and cozy like a good book, these lamps can be placed anywhere.  A truly illuminating gift idea.

When Sally Met Sally.

Let us not forget our bookish same sex couple friends.  The “I Love You Library”  will hold their most precious books while honoring their shared lives and interests.  Imagine them filled with books, icons of bookish souls, fused together for eternity.

When Harry Met Harry.

Made of welded and brushed aluminum and MDF, they can also serve as a conversation piece. Available in two styles:  Two women holding hands in bright pink, or two men holding hands in dark charcoal. 

For those friends who love to multitask, perhaps the ideal present would be this multifunctional  piece. of furniture.  The Fishbol Bookseat combines a bookcase and a lounge chair made of birch plywood. Perfect for today’s urban living, and ideal for today’s bookworm.

Manufacturer does not warranty against damp-stained books.
Book soap-on-a-rope not included.

For that super-special person in your life nothing will do but the Library Bath by Swedish designer Malin Lundmark. Combining a bathtub, an armchair, AND a bookshelf, the Library Bath is the ultimate gift for a beloved savant.  It will give new meaning to the idea of relaxing with a good book - the piece de resistance for reading that magnum opus.  (Note:  can be used with the book deodorizing granules so both reader and book can end their tryst smelling fresh!).

We hope these suggestions have provided food for gift-thought.  We book people enjoy receiving discerning, book-related gifts, particularly if they're a bit off-the-shelf and beaten path. 

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Rare Book Trading Cards On Santa's Top Shelf

I’ll trade ya a Tarzan 1st for a Moby Dick 1st.

What’ya crazy? S’like asking me to trade a Mickey Mantle for
a Whitey Ford. Take a long walk off a short pier, pal.

When book collectors congregate they like to trade stories about the book that got away, their latest acquisition, one-up each other, relate bibliographical points, how many hairs did Hemingway have in his beard while writing whatever and what percentage were grey, etc., etc.

Now collectors can trade classic rare book cards. They're like baseball cards for bibliophiles who want to know the score.

ABAA modern firsts specialists, Between the Covers (BTC), in association with Biblioctopus, has created 228 trading cards of the classic, most desirable rare books and packaged them into three sets of seventy-six cards each. Like baseball cards, the upper panel features a great portrait, the rear panel providing vital stats: Place, Date, Edition, Binding, Condition, and selling Price, along with a brief description.

Sort of like porn for book sluts and hound dogs. They’re the ideal stocking stuffers this, or any, year.


The books (often inscribed, presentation or association copies) and descriptions are culled from the catalogues of BTC and Biblioctopus. Fans of the catalogues of Mark Hime, the ABAA’s resident misanthropic quipster-curmudgeon and proprietor of Biblioctopus, will be in for a treat as his irreverent cataloging style and comments have made it onto the cards intact.

The cards, each 3 5/8 x 2 3/4 inches, are $20 per set, $50 for all three. They can be ordered direct from BTC here.

Dan Gregory, manager and majordomo of Between the Covers, told us how the whole project began.

“I think the original idea for doing a book catalog in the form of collectable trading cards came from Mark Hime. Mark had done several unusual format catalogs in the past -- a few poster catalogs issued to coincide with bookfairs, and an elaborate joke catalog of famous fictional objects (Huck Finn's fishing rod, etc.) Around the middle of 1997, when Between the Covers started to issue catalogs in which every book was pictured individually and in color, Tom and Mark talked about collaborating on such a set. I came up with the design, and worked out the technical specifications (for example, how thick a card stock would yield the right number of cards to fit perfectly on a press sheet AND when cut would fit perfectly into available plastic set holders, etc.).

A fine copy in a fine dust jacket now sells for $100,000+

“The idea from the outset was to create a 'greatest hits' catalog of outstanding material that had not sold out of previous catalogs -- we're booksellers after all. Quite a few good books were deemed too obscure. When you only have a sentence or two to describe a book, the inherent desirability of the book has to be a pretty obvious to start. I took existing descriptions and edited them down for space, and Tom (Congalton) and Mark each had a hand finalizing the text.

“The chemise for the first set was patterned after a 19th Century half leather binding. For the second set I took a 1950s Mickey Spillane pulp paperback and reworked the art so that the femme fatale is protecting a book. The chemise of the final set was taken from a 1920s Bonet binding (from an original loaned to me by Priscilla Juvelis). Throughout the three sets we took care not to repeat the edition of any single title.

“We actually have some uncut press sheets for each set -- they make a really cool poster and we wanted to sell them or give them away but the sheet is too thick to roll and difficult to ship, so they are buried somewhere in our building, waiting to be discovered by another generation of booksellers.

“We're often asked if we'll do a fourth set, but I have little interest. First, given our inventory and the card sets' emphasis on 'high spots,' it is difficult to avoid duplicating titles. Second, there's a nice symmetry to the suite of three (it's a ‘magic number’ my kids sing to me).”

We asked Tom Congalton, proprietor of BTC, to comment about the scandalous absence of bubble gum in each set of Classic Book Cards but he, justifiably, appears to think the question too silly to respond to. Mark Hime, who has made it his sacred duty to worship at the Church of Latter-Day Luddites, can only be reached via bush telegraph beating log-drums, smoke signals, or vintage '40's rotary desk phone while taking a bottle out of the bottom drawer, pouring himself a stiff one, chair back, feet up, and imagining Mary Astor as the deceitful, amoral dame who knew no boundaries, had a mosquito's heart, a vampire's greed, and knew how to handle a gat: She was trouble but he specialized in trouble.

“It was the best copy in the world and she had to have it - But she wasn’t going to pay in cash...” (Mark Hime, L.A. rare book dealer, moonlight gumshoe, and cousin of Mike Hammer).

Yet she wasn't interested in paying with what he presumed she was interested in paying with, so he negotiated with the treacherous jane and sold her all three sets of Classic Book Cards in exchange for a chaste kiss on his cheek and a so long, sucker.

(Between the Covers accepts standard forms of payment). 

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